Storm claim victory in Brisbane

The Melbourne Storm have continued their unbeaten start to the 2007 season by downing the Brisbane Broncos, their Grand Final conquerors of 2006, in a high-quality match in front of 33,750 fans at Suncorp Stadium.

Both teams had trouble holding the ball in near-perfect conditions and costly mistakes from each side led to a try for the opposition and a 6-all scoreline after 10 minutes of play. Unfortunately for the Broncos, that was as close as they were able to get as the Storm kicked ahead with tries to Billy Slater and Steve Turner before Broncos substitute Ben Hannant was able to crash across late in the first half as the Storm seemed to be wilting under a heavy defensive load.

The 16-12 halftime score in favour of the Storm was a fair reflection of the match, but the Storm quickly blew the scoreline out to 28-12 within 13 minutes of the break as Slater scorched across for a second try and Israel Folau kept his phenomenal try-scoring rate ticking over.

The Broncos never looked like they were out of the running but were letting themselves down with some poor ball handling at crucial times. They were finally able to score through David Stagg in the 74th minute, but had left their run just a little too late to threaten the Storm